Southwest moving to assigned seats

[rickandcindy23]

I don't see the value of lounges in your home airport. I don't show up super early to hang out in a lounge. Lounges are best, IMO, for long layovers. I certainly wouldn't pay money or fees just to get lounge access in an airport that I fly out or back into of most often.

We have had some really terrible delays, two the last year, where our flight to Orlando was cancelled (this was May) and we were put into the last flight of the day, a six-hour layover. This was Southwest. We thought about taking an Uber home but tried the Capital One lounge instead.

Another flight was re-directed and didn't make it to Denver for our flight to PDX for our overnight before our Maui flight. This was Alaska, and we spent hours in the airport trying to figure out another way to get to Maui the next day. That was February. We were able to use Priority Pass to get a meal at the Merchantile restaurant, but that was only good for about an hour.

It would be an easy choice to get the United card, if SW changes their current cattle call boarding process. We probably won't use SW over United because it won't be cheaper.

 

[DrQ]

I don't think there is a requirement under ADA to sell a second seat to a passenger because of a bum knee. Each airline seems to have a different policy for this. Some will allow you to purchase an extra seat for personal comfort, others won't. Given Southwest's boarding process I can see why they don't do this. To them an empty seat is an open seat. There is no way to show you have it reserved unless you buy an extra seat under their Customer of Size policy. The question is, did she have both boarding passes scanned when she boarded the plane? I am thinking not because the second pass wouldn't have scanned.

When she was interviewed by TMZ, she said that she notified the gate agent when she boarded and the agent told her to put the second ticket on the seat to show that it was a purchased seat. It was checked in, according to her, this is not the first time she has done this, she had the accident in 2018.

It will be interesting if these people start getting deposed, if it gets that far - I bet SWA folds with a settlement.

This was a case of the flight attendant being a pr*ck and the result is going to give SWA a black eye.

 

[WaikikiFirst]

This was a case of the flight attendant being a pr*ck

Shocked. SHOCKED I tell ya

 

[TolmiePeak]

We never flew Southwest because I didn't want to be separated from kids when they were younger. You can have control over your boarding position on your first flight but not on any connecting flights. Doesn't matter if you get position A1 if your connecting flight is late and you end up boarding last on your 2nd flight. You are all going to get middle seats. I just didn't want to deal with the stress.

 

[emeryjre]

are they that bad? This makes me more unsure about flying them again than almost anything else could.
since I flew on SW last winter seems like I get their CC offers at least 1x / wk and their sales offers almost that often. Having an assortment of CCs is a mirage of a benefit so til i'm ready to cancel one, won't add SW

They had a serious failure of their computers over Christmas of 2022
It was a major black eye for the carrier
Ruined lots of Holidays for many travelers
I have not kept up with the finer details of SWA over the last 18 months
I presume they understand the increase if computing power needed to keep track of seating for their customers
But these days assuming things about computers can lead to surprises

Delta has had a terrible problem restarting their computer systems after the Crowdstrike problem
Many flights were canceled as the location of pilots and flight crews could not be determined
Again
I do not know about the condition of SWA computers
Hopefully the promises made in early 2023 by the CEO were implemented

 

[TolmiePeak]

I do not know about the condition of SWA computers
Hopefully the promises made in early 2023 by the CEO were implemented

It has been pretty widely reported that SWA avoided most of the recent debacle because they are still running computers with Windows 3.1. So no they haven't upgraded their computers.

 

[jules54]

I was just reviewing the terms and saw that.

Our son is in fire protection at the airport, and he thinks I am over-thinking the loss of the priority pass lounges at DEN. He said I should just figure out another way to get lounge access, so United is one idea, another is Capital One Venture X . Whatever we do, one of of our high-fee credit cards need to be cancelled to even consider the United or the Capital One Venture X. There is a Capital One lounge at DEN, and it's nice enough. If I was a drinker, I could get more value from it. The generic soda machine with no brand names has vanilla cream soda with 0 calories. It's pretty good. We have two free lounge visits with our regular Cap One venture card (not the X).

We have two SW credit cards. Maybe I should cancel those.

We like our United card for free luggage. 2 lounge passes per year which the last few years coming home from Mexico we haven’t had a long enough layover to use them. One of our sons live in Denver and he has the United chase card also. Chase Freedom is good also because you can transfer points to United and then use your United card to pay the taxes and get free luggage. Bam

 

[jp10558]

I don't think there is a requirement under ADA to sell a second seat to a passenger because of a bum knee. Each airline seems to have a different policy for this. Some will allow you to purchase an extra seat for personal comfort, others won't. Given Southwest's boarding process I can see why they don't do this. To them an empty seat is an open seat. There is no way to show you have it reserved unless you buy an extra seat under their Customer of Size policy. The question is, did she have both boarding passes scanned when she boarded the plane? I am thinking not because the second pass wouldn't have scanned.

I just can't fathom why an airline wouldn't let you buy an extra seat and not put a person in it. It's all bonus for the Airline - they get the ticket price, they have less weight, bags, and staff time to process a person. What in the heck is the downside here?

 

[jp10558]

We like our United card for free luggage. 2 lounge passes per year which the last few years coming home from Mexico we haven’t had a long enough layover to use them. One of our sons live in Denver and he has the United chase card also. Chase Freedom is good also because you can transfer points to United and then use your United card to pay the taxes and get free luggage. Bam

How does that work - now that I'm mostly flying out of Newark so United, I might be able to commit more or less to a carrier, but if the card is $525 a year, I'd have to fly a lot to make that up in "free luggage".

 

[jwalk03]

I am not a fan of this change. If an assigned seat was important to me I would pick literally anyone of the other airlines. I like Southwest precisely because it offers a unique product that I find appealing.

Interested to see what the exact details of this will be once they give some actual info about how its going to work.

 

[emeryjre]

It has been pretty widely reported that SWA avoided most of the recent debacle because they are still running computers with Windows 3.1. So no they haven't upgraded their computers.

I thought the posts were from the Onion or were sarcastic posts
I had no idea they were real
Absolutely insane running a major airline on such old equipment

 

[jules54]

How does that work - now that I'm mostly flying out of Newark so United, I might be able to commit more or less to a carrier, but if the card is $525 a year, I'd have to fly a lot to make that up in "free luggage".

Our Chase United Explorer Mileage Plus is 95.00 per year. I know cause I’m paying it this month. I think I saw right now a 65,000 bonus miles for opening a new card. First year fee free. That definitely pays for itself.

 

[rickandcindy23]

How does that work - now that I'm mostly flying out of Newark so United, I might be able to commit more or less to a carrier, but if the card is $525 a year, I'd have to fly a lot to make that up in "free luggage".

The card with two free lounge visits is not $525. Unlimited lounge visits card is $525. We would visit those lounges, but you really have to fly United, and SW being our favorite airline has kept us from flying United.

 

[TravelJoy]

It

Shocked. SHOCKED I tell ya

It used to be there was clear delineation between tier 1 and tier 2/3 airlines but nowadays no such line exists may as well go with Frontier or Spirit for a 1/10 the cost. Our last trip to Hi was smooth sailing on SW with companion pass on a heavily discounted promo offer, same with the most recent Frontier/Spirit excursions. Just luck of the draw, but since these airlines have no real oversight they do as they see please.

 

[Luanne]

How does that work - now that I'm mostly flying out of Newark so United, I might be able to commit more or less to a carrier, but if the card is $525 a year, I'd have to fly a lot to make that up in "free luggage".

I have a United Chase card. I pay $95/year and I get one free bag and 2 club passes each year. And they reimburse for Global Entry or TSA as long as you use that card.

 

[jackio]

Thank you for the idea of buying an extra seat for comfort.

Last year I was given a status match for diamond elite on Frontier Air (I know, I know, but they fly out of my local airport and for short trips have been great). It includes free Discount Den membership, extra legroom seats, carry-on and checked bag for up to 8 passengers.

This week, they put non-stop from JFK-LAS on sale for $88 round trip. I bought across-aisle seats for DH and for me, but I just bought a 3rd seat for me and changed us to all 3 seats in Row 3. This will give us the extra room for a total of $132 each r/t. I never thought to do this!

 

[TolmiePeak]

It

It used to be there was clear delineation between tier 1 and tier 2/3 airlines but nowadays no such line exists may as well go with Frontier or Spirit for a 1/10 the cost. Our last trip to Hi was smooth sailing on SW with companion pass on a heavily discounted promo offer, same with the most recent Frontier/Spirit excursions. Just luck of the draw, but since these airlines have no real oversight they do as they see please.

If you want to reduce your chances of problems the biggest tip is to pay more and fly non-stop. We live in Seattle and always fly non-stop on Alaska. Frontier, Spirit, and Southwest have gotten very little traction at SeaTac. It is all Alaska and Delta with the vast majority of flights. United used to have an entire terminal and large market share here but retreated to SFO in the 90s and consolidated their west coast base there.

 

[rickandcindy23]

I have a United Chase card. I pay $95/year and I get one free bag and 2 club passes each year. And they reimburse for Global Entry or TSA as long as you use that card.

Is it one free bag for everyone on your itinerary with you?

 

[dioxide45]

I thought the posts were from the Onion or were sarcastic posts
I had no idea they were real
Absolutely insane running a major airline on such old equipment

You'd be surprised how many large corporations are still running legacy software. Most ATMs run on Windows XP. Marriott International still uses mainframe and hires programmers that can still program in COBOL. Till a few years ago, Costco was still running their systems off mainframe and AS400 systems. We won't even start to talk about government because they are the worst. Upgrading is extremely costly, time consuming and painful to both the company and customers and it really doesn't help generate new revenue.

 

[TravelJoy]

Thank you for the idea of buying an extra seat for comfort.

Last year I was given a status match for diamond elite on Frontier Air (I know, I know, but they fly out of my local airport and for short trips have been great). It includes free Discount Den membership, extra legroom seats, carry-on and checked bag for up to 8 passengers.

This week, they put non-stop from JFK-LAS on sale for $88 round trip. I bought across-aisle seats for DH and for me, but I just bought a 3rd seat for me and changed us to all 3 seats in Row 3. This will give us the extra room for a total of $132 each r/t. I never thought to do this!

We did the same, flew a baseball team of 9 to multiple destinations <$40 ow + free checked bag + free exit aisle seats at booking for everyone, what's not to like when you just need to go from point a to point b no issues, still have the elite til end of year.

 

[pedro47]

To avoid this happening Southwest needs to assign seats.
Thus that passenger would have paid for two seats side by side. IMHO

Southwest passenger model needs to be evaluated.

 

[davidvel]

For those against this change, according to the article almost all existing and potential customers hate open seating. So you are in the very small minority. I've been flying around the west on Southwest for decades. Open seating to me was always a gimmick.

If the numbers are in any way accurate, Southwest either lost billions from those unhappy people or saved even more from the open seating system.

 

[dioxide45]

I am neither for or against. I like the open seating for direct flights but we had an issue where we got stuck in TSA and issues with parking at MCO and we only got to the gate between B and C groups even though we are actually pre board. That was bad. An assigned seat would have prevented the issue. I fully expect them to implement additional fees to select seats early and additional fees for premium seating. More legroom is meaningless to me, I need more wide room.

 

[TravelJoy]

Open seating was a ploy to get their foot in the door to appeal to mainstream citizens removing the elitist hierarchy, alas they are now elite and the price reflects this.

 

[DrQ]

Thank you for the idea of buying an extra seat for comfort.

Last year I was given a status match for diamond elite on Frontier Air (I know, I know, but they fly out of my local airport and for short trips have been great). It includes free Discount Den membership, extra legroom seats, carry-on and checked bag for up to 8 passengers.

This week, they put non-stop from JFK-LAS on sale for $88 round trip. I bought across-aisle seats for DH and for me, but I just bought a 3rd seat for me and changed us to all 3 seats in Row 3. This will give us the extra room for a total of $132 each r/t. I never thought to do this!

My wife and I buy window and isle seats and we buy the center seat as an extra to block it off.